Tippett saga a total mess

Kurt Tippett can play footy.

He's not a natural after coming to the game from a basketball background but if he grabs the first mark he goes for he usually has a good day.

Officially he was supposed to be one of the highest-paid Crows players but unofficially he was getting a fair bit more on top of that in a brown paper bag in the boot of a car - allegedly.

Deals like this have been going on for years because most of them don't get caught but when they do the league has always come down on them like a ton of bricks, just ask Carlton Football Club.

Where will he end up and what will his punishment be? No one really knows yet.

One thing I do know for sure is that if you're the parent of a footballer you should do your son a favour and keep out of negotiations and let their manager manage.

Tippett will miss games because the draft has been compromised and the league will also take the stick to the Crows.

This could affect the Crows' chances of winning a flag in the next couple of years because I thought they were on track to be very competitive next year.

A few people might lose their jobs over this and they possibly deserve to.

You've got to have a system in place to discourage this sort of thing from happening and people have agreed to it, so you just can't go rorting it.

The Crows didn't want Tippett to go to the Swans because they expect to be competing with them in big matches.

They would have been more than happy though for him to go to the Suns or Giants who are still years away from being contenders.

But Tippett when he opted out of the Crows wanted to play in a premiership and that's why he nominated the premiers rather than their cross-town rivals or the Suns or Lions.

It all got too hard and now it has to be sorted out by the AFL.